Reviews by Tonmeister:

Appearance: black, but light still shines through the glass. There's also a thin brownish head present with a thin lacing that breaks up when tilting the glass.

The Aroma is chocolatey with a slight hop presence. Citrusy and sweet at the same time.

I can feel the "warmth" of the alcohol, but I can't taste it. I can taste the sweetness from the sugary malt, and the citrusy hoppy flavor combined with a slight smoked after taste resulting in a well balanced beer.

I wouldn't consider it containing a dense mouthfeel, but I also wouldn't consider it having a thin mouthfeel. It's in between. It also contains slight carbonation, as expected due to the 10% ABV.

Overall I consider this a great beer. One of my favorites! It's too bad that this is a one time release. I can definitely taste the hoppyness flavor cutting through, yet it's not really bitter; It's more on the citrusy side. It's is a very well balanced beer containing a complex taste. I would definitely buy this again.

More User Reviews:

Had on tap at the Filling Station here in G-boro tonight.Poured into a standard pint glass a deep dark chocolate brown with a sticky half finger beige head atop.Aromas are a mix of piney,earthy hops and dark malts,just a little brown sugar-like sweetness is detected.flavors are on the dryer side with a decent shot of pine resin and citrus,there isn't much sweetness to balance out the hops and dryer base,the alcohol provides a little sweetness as it warmed.A big ABA but not real heavily hopped and or roasted,still it's better than way to many of the style in my opinion.

Black, like a black ale should, the head was creamy, congealed and lasted for quite some time.

The scent was of charred malt, touches of ember, pine and floral hoppiness.

The ale goes where few have gone before as it master's a dichotomy I've not seen actually accomplished. This holds principles of a charred malty ale and then in the very next sip presents a nice fruity IPA. Each taste is another adventure as you know not what is next. On top of that it is simply smooth and easy to drink, not bitter and not heavy. I really enjoyed this.

A: The beer is very dark amber in color (near black when viewed from afar). It poured with a half finger high beige head that died down, leaving a patch of bubbles in the center of the glass and lacing down the sides.
S: Light aromas of caramel malts are present in the nose along with hints of citrus and pine resin hops.
T: The taste has flavors of dark malts with hints of caramel and notes of pine resin hops. Slight bits of sweetness are present.
M: It feels medium-bodied on the palate and has a moderate amount of carbonation.
O: This beer is a little sweeter compared to other Black IPAs, but is rather easy to drink and hides its alcohol very well.

A slightly different black ale with the orange flavor predominant and the chocolatey malts much more subtle. Dangerously smooth and easy drinking for the alcohol content. I couldn't really taste it but I sure did feel the booze by the time I finished the bomber by myself.

Far more "Black" than "IPA," more sweet than bitter, more molasses than hoppy-flowers, this is a beer that—unlike several other Dank Tanks I've tried—disappointed at first sip, but mellows nicely into a solid, if not really spectacular, beer. Not supremely jet in color—more deep, burnt-brown than black, really—this is a light-bodied ale that, at the very least, hides its (10%) alcohol-heavy nature very well. Yet it is just a bit creamy, with solid vanilla-oak notes to buttress that richness of flavor (which surprises slightly, given the aforementioned relative thinness of texture). It also boasts a very nice, sweet-while-dry, floated-hop nose that is one of the more winning characteristics of the ale.

But I keep returning to the principal issue: it's just not really any sort of IPA, as far as I discern—black or otherwise. What it is, I'd say, is a very drinkable, effectively sugared, burnt-caramel-inflected, somewhat-hopped brown ale—and if it were categorized as a brown, I might review it a bit more solidly, because I would feel it were pushing the stylistic envelope, at least, even if it is a little cloying where it does fail. But as a Black IPA, it deserves some black marks—not the least being that it lingers on the tongue, with a resolute lack of bittering notes, much less any sort of pine- or grass-forward hops qualities on the front end (which are, admittedly, harder to wrangle than bitter notes in the smoked, malt-heavier universe of Black IPAs). It's also, as said, just too sweet: even more smokiness or burnt-bitter layers would mitigate that, but instead it feels very bold at some of some of the edges it shouldn't be.

Again: not terrible, by any means—and still better than many of SweetWater's mainline offerings—but not up to the usual standards of their reserve series iterations (such as, for instance, the very good The Price is Wrong).